An event as profound and far-reaching as the COVID-19 pandemic was always going to affect how we see things. For employees, this has meant looking around at their organisation and wondering if this is where they want to be. October 2019 saw a 26% jump in the number of employees moving company in Australia compared to the same time last year. The US as already seen 35 million Americans resign from their jobs, which is an all-time high.
The question employers are asking is, of course, ‘why?’.
The knee-jerk response is money, but it’s not as simple as that. We’ve identified three key reasons behind employee dissatisfaction and how you can address them.
Avoid the bad hire
Quite often, issues with employee retention simply come down to bad hires. The recruitment process isn’t bulletproof, in a lot of cases offering odds no better than 50/50 when it comes to choosing the candidate that can actually do the job. If you end up with an employee who isn’t adequately experienced or trained for the role, it won’t take long for them to become unmotivated and disengaged.
This isn’t necessarily anyone’s fault. It’s hard for candidates to give an objective and accurate assessment of their own skillsets and it’s hard for recruiters to remove their own biases from the process. But it’s something we need to get right, considering replacing an employee can cost upwards of 200% of their salary.
A trustworthy recruitment process involves evaluating candidates on the skills they will need to execute the demands of the job. Evaluations like these are precisely what the team at Skills Gap Analysis specialises in. We assess skills, competencies and capabilities across the procurement lifecycle and benchmark the results to see where the candidate sits within the industry. Most often, these evaluations are used for employees, but they are equally useful as part of a recruitment process to target the right people.
Avoid the bad hire and you’ll go a long way to improving employee retention.
Show me the career development
It may be surprising, but workers don’t often leave simply because of money. In fact, some surveys have found that nearly half of those who leave within a year accept a smaller salary elsewhere. In other words, they want to get out of the place bad enough to take a pay cut.
So what’s the issue? More often than not, a lack of direction. Humans need to feel like they’re working towards something. Happy employees see a future of growth at their organisation. They see training and development and a more capable version of themselves. Educational programs are key to achieving this, but they have to be the right kind.
Out-of-the-box, generic training programs won’t cut it. PowerPoint slides and fun-for-five-minute gimmicks won’t inspire a workforce. Academy of Procurement offers long-term, career-oriented syllabuses that are tailored to the individual. Employees will work with Dedicated Account Managers – akin to thesis supervisors – who monitor progress and make sure the program is being worked through at the right pace: not too slow, not too fast.
This isn’t about checking a box that says ‘we offer career advancement and training’. This is about the right type of engagement that fosters real learning and capability development. Workers are far more likely to stick with the organisation that avoids role stagnation and provides continuous forward momentum
Is your reputation sustainable?
The modern worker wants to be part of an organisation that actively tries to make the world a better place. Green supply chains, eradicating slave labour, working with diverse vendors – this is the company a millennial wants to be a part of. In fact, they want to be a part of it so much that almost half are willing to take a pay cut if necessary.
Introducing sustainability into your procurement function, however, is not easy or straightforward. The ability to recognise areas of opportunity is a skill in itself, which is why Academy of Procurement has designed courses like Social & Sustainable Procurement to equip workers with the knowledge required to map a path towards sustainable practices.
Become a destination organisation
Navigating the great resignation takes a multifaceted approach that’s embraced from the top down. The good thing is that all the strategies described above make commercial sense and should be a part of an organisation’s agenda no matter the current state of employee movement. To turn your company into a workplace employees want to be a part of, get in touch with Comprara today and start the transformation.
